Poetry & Music Project Book 21/22

POETRY & MUSIC PROJECT

Now in its fifth year, the Poetry & Music Project connects student poets and their words with composers to create original music and explore the connections between poetry and music.

This past year, Opera Omaha and the Nebraska Writers Collective invited Nebraska and Iowa students in grades K-12 to submit works of poetry on the theme of “Exploring Natural Beauty.” As part of the project, over 350 elementary, middle and high school students across the state took part in Poetry & Music writing workshops facilitated by NWC teaching artists.

This book includes every poem submitted to the project. Opera Omaha received 70 poems by 58 student poets from across 7 Nebraska counties: Cedar, Custer, Douglas, Holt, Otoe, Phelps, and Sarpy.

There were many outstanding poems submitted to the project. After a blind review, project composers Matt Browne and Alexis Lamb selected eleven poems that they were inspired by to be set to music. As part of the process, poets and composers gathered virtually for music workshops. These workshops were a time for poets and composers to collaborate on the original pieces of music with Head of Music Sean Kelly and Opera Omaha’s Holland Community Opera Fellows.

The Poetry & Music Project pieces premiered with a concert on May 14th, 2022 at the Benson Theatre and via livestream. The concert featured the eleven original pieces performed by HCOF Fellows Jared Hiscock and Jaime Marie Webb and Opera Omaha Head of Music Sean Kelly, and was hosted by HCOF Fellow Fernando Antonio Montejano and Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason. Recordings of each song were also made available on Opera Omaha’s website.

The 2021-2022 theme, “Exploring Natural Beauty,” and subthemes, Passage of Time, Freedom, Reclamation, Solace, and Connectedness were inspired by artist Adam Larsen’s Nebraska: Flatwater. This immersive video installation explores the natural beauty of Nebraska from a different perspective. Nebraska: Flatwater was on view at Gallery 1516 from April 29-July 3, 2022.

Opera Omaha’s Poetry & Music Project is produced in continued partnership with Nebraska Writers Collective and supported in part by Humanities Nebraska.

Additional Poetry & Music Project partners include The American Opera Project and Gallery 1516.

5 “Controlled Chaos” Hanna Annis, Gretna High School

6 “Let Me Be” Addison Bailey, Callaway High School

7 “Nature Reassembles” Audra Blessen, Gretna Middle School

8 “A Bit of Solace” Victoria Bogatz, Lewis & Clark Middle (BPS)

9 “Dandelion Seed” Reagan Cheleen, Gretna High School

10

“Alone” Tom Lacey, Gretna Middle School

11 “Caterpillar Songs” Ava Larson, Brownell Talbot

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

“Sea” Phoenix Nehls, Millard South High School

“Mountain Pride” Jackson Walters, Hayward Elementary

“Zoey The Jelly Fish” Zophia Warren, Hayward Elementary

“Piano” Vivian Williams, Gretna Middle School

ALL POEM SUBMISSIONS

“Winter” Hanna Annis, Gretna High

“Solace” Caeden Arnold, Callaway High School

“Trip through…” Bo Brennan, Callaway High School

26

“How I Love America” Chance Dishman, Callaway High School

27 “Meet Again” Giavanna Doyle, Callaway High School

28 “The Cottage on a Hill” Lucille Driewer, Gretna High School

29 “The Wrong Forever” Jozi Edgington, Callaway High School

30 “The Old Oak Tree” Elijah Eggleston, Callaway High School

31 “They The People” Elijah Eggleston, Callaway High School

32 “Affinity” Bryn-Marie Eggleston, Callaway High School

33 “Cheetah” Jasmine Ehlers, Hayward Elementary

34 “The Liberty Bell” Neil Feeney, Hayward Elementary

35 “When and Why?” Kaylee Fredrick, Gretna Middle School

36 “Solace” Uotong Haidle, Callaway High School

37 “A Sloth Named Gracelynn” Gracelynn Haneline, Hayward Elementary

38 “Hawaii” Gracelynn Haneline, Hayward Elementary

39 “A choice made” Erin Harrington, Callaway High School

40 “The ineffable beauty of it all” Morgan Harvey, Gretna High School

41 “Journey of the Wind” Martha Hinneh, Marian High School

42 “Fortnite Freedom” Levi Housh, Hayward Elementary

43 “The Beauty of Being Alone” Greeley Hrupek, Callaway High School

44 “Time” Taylor Jacobson, Kiewet Middle School

45 “Freedom is…” Cassidy James, Hayward Elementary

46 “Harvest Time” Harper Johnson, Callaway High School

47 “Bridges” Sara Kalamaja, Skutt Catholic High School

48 “In All of Us, An Ocean” Sara Kalamaja, Skutt Catholic High School

49

“Spirit” Carleigh Liable, Callaway High School

50 “Liberty’s Bell” Kyson Lammers, Holy Trinity

51 “Eyes” Sa’Mya Lee, Burke High School

52 “Freedom” Murrin Leonard, Hayward Elementary

53 “My Fox Life” Murrin Leonard, Hayward Elementary

54

55

56

57

“Freedom” Jessy Linden, Callaway High School

“The Mountain Lion” Paighton Marion, Hayward Elementary

“The Freedom You Have” Dawson A. Mason, Callaway High School

“Peace in Nature” Alizabeth McDermott, Holdrege High School

58 “A Simple Connection” Alizabeth McDermott, Holdrege High School

59

60

61

62

63

“The Passing of Time” Kailyn Nakai, Gretna Middle School

“Accident” Phoenix Nehls, Millard South High School

“Passage of Time (Tree)” Darragh Newring, Gretna Middle School

“Freedom” CJ Quandt, Callaway High School

“The earth and the way she loves” Stephanie Schrader, Skutt Catholic High School

64 “Giving Thanks” Miriam Shaffer, Gretna Middle School

65 “Spirit” Miriam Shaffer, Gretna Middle School

66

67

68

69

“I’m Free” Emily Shannon, Hayward Elementary

“If I Were to Fly” Allison Trumbull, Callaway High School

“The Breath of the Leaves” Bryna Umphress, Summerland Public School

Controlled Chaos

Hanna Annis

Yellow house

White fence

Mowed lawn

Two trees

Equidistant apart

Little gate

Open and welcome

But time’s arrow marches forward

Overgrown lawn

Faded house

Vines surrounding

The gate

Left ajar

Plants encase

The fence

Nature itself

Has claimed

The house

Transforming it

From civil

To natural

Uncontrollable beauty

Let Me Be

Addison Bailey

Just because I’m by myself doesn’t mean I wish I was with someone else sometimes I need time to think so I can reconnect with the world all around me so there’s no need to pity me when I’m home alone on a Friday night while others are out living their lives now trust me when I say I’m perfectly okay not everyone was made to be in the center of the stage I know I’m not the only one who wants to sit and watch watch others go out day after day while we sit alone night after night so if you really want to comfort me just let me be

Nature Reassembles

Audra Blessen

Crashing and shaking, the earth is quaking. Mountains tremble; Plains split, but when it stops and I arise, What I see takes me by surprise. Canyons form where mountains trembled; Rivers fill the splits.

Throughout the shaking, nature is breathtaking. When the earth trembles, Nature will always reassemble.

A bit of solace

Victoria Bogatz

The night is dark and deep

And it’s been far too long

The stars are gone

What else to do

But drive quietly

Along empty roads

The fields swaying slightly

I stare, as if Some lost hope

Some tangible peace Is hiding in the goldenrods

Alone with my thoughts

I am no longer lost Just a wanderer

Gravel crunching below my tires

A bird whistles from afar

That’s when I feel it

Maybe not joy

But a bit of solace

And that’s enough

silence

woooshh

Dandelion Seed

Reagan Cheleen

The heart, with broken wings Is stuck where it fell

Pearl feathers flit Mourning its loss

Up towards the heavens Of an unsaid farewell:

Pulled down by a bit

To the other guarded hearts

Weighed down That flited away,

Falling Goodbye to you all

Falling I’ll remember the day

Falling We broke free from one another And stretched our new wings

Eager to part

Woooshh To discover new things

Wispy arms reach for the sky

Up to the clouds with a now-broken heart

The rain pulls it down

Broke open by a sprout

Falling The seed took it rest

Falling And grew all about

Falling

Woooshh…

A gusty storm blows

Its breath rips the whisp

The heart has nothing to hold

Waiting…

For the next

Falling woooshh

Falling

Falling

Waiting… In

silence silence

Alone

Tom Lacey

The song in the rustle of the leaves can only truly be heard alone

The music buried within a fire can only be enjoyed alone

The orchestra of the animals will only be revealed alone

Peace is consuming and jealous of your presence when it finally finds you alone

Caterpillar Songs

Ava Larson

Caterpillar to butterfly

That’s what girls are supposed to do

Ugly duck becomes swan and your wishes come true

But I didn’t blossom like I thought I should

And I wish I could tell that sweet little girl

“Not all butterflies are good”

But, she’ll read from her storybooks

And hyper analyze her looks

How long would her cocoon take to form?

It’s been 4 years and her patience is worn

The other girls had already emerged

And her dreams of butterfly days, all but purged

But once her dirge shifted into her proud song

She discovered those butterfly wings had been there all along

Sea

Phoenix Nehls

“When all of this is over, we’ll live by the sea.”

you told me that once, eyes sagging and tired, looking for a way out, desperate and adrift, a quiet resolution as winter took the breath from your lungs it was never a fiction, but a simple truth you held in your bones, and ever since I was young, as you told me, as I knew, we’d live by the sea, I would toddle on warm beaches, wrapped in the embrace of the water, and you would smile in the sunlight,

I would be able to fall in love with the waves, as they washed the wrinkles from your face,

This place makes misers of us both, because you are not made for the cold, just as I am not made for the land

We are mariners without a vessel, With the words lining our salt-laced lips, “When all of this is over, we’ll live by the sea.”

Mountain Pride

Jackson Walters

A thousand years ago I was just a little plateau, Every year, the bigger I’d grow. I had three villages on me, Nine hundred years later the people moved off of me Only because I was as high as can be. People like to litter on me They’re lucky they can’t hear me.

One of them stubbed their toe on me, I was laughing as hard as can be. I am the oldest mountain now but nobody likes me, Oh, what’s this now, four villages on me, I’m the best mountain I can see!

Zoey The Jelly Fish

Zophia Warren

I am a Jelly Fish, I like to wish, I like fish, What is your wish?

My wish is to fly right to the sky... But I am a fish and fish can’t fly, But it’s cool, I like to use my imagination too.

Piano

Vivian Williams

Piano makes me calm you see, Not a playground or a tree. When I play a song, dun duh duh du dong.

Piano is a gift to be able to play, If you cannot, it is okay. Sometimes it’s good to try, But if you can’t please don’t cry.

Songs like ‘Sakura’ and ‘Court Dance,’ Can make you feel piu mosso or meno mosso

When you play a song that’s vivace, ‘You are at the right tempo

Piano is always in the right tempo, until you’re fine.

So play lento, And that’s the finale.

Winter

Hanna Annis

She only comes in the summer

She doesn’t care for the cold

She comes to see the bright colors

The beautiful flowers

The bees flitting from bulb to bulb

The light breeze weaving through her hair

She only enjoys half the beauty

She loves the summer

She gives her entire heart

To only half the picture

As if only watering the plants seen from the outside

Leaving the hidden ones to die

Those poor flowers

If only she saw...

The quiet landscape

Evergreens standing tall

Frost creeping up every tree

Painting the bark white

Snow falling onto untouched drifts

Settling on the ground like a big white blanket

The iced over ponds

White slowly absorbing blue

The stars shining brightly above

Seeing every constellation in stark contrast

To the white all around

The winter holds hidden beauty that most won’t see

But if she tried to see

There’d be something there for her

Solace

Caeden Arnold

Solace.

A word many know but don’t understand, Yet a word everyone understands.

Everyone knows that feeling. But some of us understand better than others. We all wish we had an open hand to grab when we’re sorrowful, That someone who you grow closer to every day.

Others don’t have the option for that someone, Like they wish they did.

They look around seeing everyone so happy, Just wishing that could be them. A moment to be free, To be happy, To not be held down.

They feel as if they are alone, By themselves with no grasp.

Then out of the random, Someone grabs their hand. And in that moment they think, “Maybe everything will be okay after all.”

Trip through...

Bo Brennan

Today

Tomorrow

Every day filled with sorrow

Year by year

Everyone filled with fear

What will be next

In this lifelong project?

Or will time neglect?

The destination of this trip

Will it be on a cruise ship?

Or shall it be on a warship?

It is your choice to decide How to ride the tide.

New Chapter

Gabby Burns

A million beginnings without an end.

It’s only a chapter when the sun descends.

The wind dances with the leaves in red and gold apparel,

As the vast open land echoes the bird’s sweet carol.

Golden fields quietly whisper

Promises of the coming winter.

I feel warm as the sun glows,

As it cancels out the wintry winds’ blow.

A sapphire sky with cotton clouds will soon grow old,

But soon it will be blush and lavender with streaks of gold.

A new chapter will begin, but the story will never close.

The next chapter will begin when a navy night turns to rose.

Paradise

Gabby Burns

The way the wind blows gently rustling my hair,

The warm spring breeze with traces of summer’s air.

Every sound a symphony every silence a rest,

Every movement a dance every creature a guest.

The stars shine like embers in the sky,

And the man in the moon smiles from his place up high.

Every scent is sweet like the roses in the wind,

Like the cherry blossoms whose flowers are never dimmed.

I know this version of the world and myself is never hard to find,

This perfect world exists in fragments in my mind.

Life is Freedom

Holden Chapin

Life is freedom, sometimes it’s boring You might be snoring, Life is freedom!

Flawed Beauty

Reagan Cheleen

A wilting poppy

Droops its limp body

Taking its last breath

A broken branch

Hangs its head sorrowfully

Torn from its cedar mother

A one winged crane

Struggles to stay afloat

Unevenly exerting Its energy

That poppy perishes and forms new life

That branch will break and be replaced

That crane is supported by its flock,

Travelling west

Over a field of poppies

Where a broken branch rests

The crane doesn’t notice a broken tree or dead flower

The tree is oblivious of a dying blossom beneath its feet

Or a single winged crane flying above

The poppy doesn’t even raise its eyes

To see a sorrowful branch

Hanging on by a thread

Or that single winged crane flying above

A field outshines the one

A forest outshines the one

A flock outshines the one

The whole picture

The full landscape

Singular flaws

Don’t detract

They go unnoticed

In the whole picture

Flawed beauty

Reclamation

Casey Clements

Sometimes people with grassland

burn their pastures because it slows down the bad grasses so that good grass comes in.

By doing so the people can reclaim their pasture and grassland from the cedar trees that have been taking over.

WOLF

Audrey Daniels

I start as a little pup I eat meat out of a cup.

Mom gives me milk

So I can grow big and strong, My life span isn’t that long So I made up this little song.

Freedom at School

Audrey Daniels

My freedom is going to school, Everyone thinks it’s very cool. Sometimes we learn something, Other times we get to sing. School is the very best thing, At recess I play on the swing.

How I Love America

Chance Dishman

When I step outside, I see people in their cars traveling to their locations. As I watch them pass by my house, it shows us that we have the right to drive into another state

When we sing the American anthem, we show an example of respect to our country and the people of the U.S.A

As the citizens of America that are 18 or older, we have the right to vote for which candidate to be our president.

As I watch the American flag go back and forth in the hard blowing wind, It reminds me who fought for my freedom here,

As I honor then men and women who fought for my country, I thank them for their service!

Meet again

Giavanna Doyle

To see her one more time would tear me to pieces

Knowing that she is watching over me and knowing that I’ll be okay without her

Surely is the reason I’m still going on and trying my hardest

But I know that we will meet again someday

Even though it is hard to think about so many years without her.

But I know the years and seconds of you being gone

I realize that once you have someone you love deeply

And you lose them everything slips away

And the feeling of being alone and no one is there

I know that people around are feeling just silent

When that day comes to meet again it will truly be the foremost of everything

Love you, sister, and will always remember you I will keep your memory alive till the day I die.

The Cottage on a Hill

Lucille Driewer

There is a cottage on top of a hill

Its walls are smooth and its windows hung

I walk to the cottage a home so grand

In the middle of a forest the cottage lies

The trees grand and shades of green

I look to the birds overhead

They are being carried by the purple wind

As fire bursts in the sky

Shades of oranges and reds

The crystal blue lake nearby

As feathers burst I start to fly

I am with the birds

I can fly all around

Through the crouching hills

And up the waving mountains

I can fly for days always returning

To the little cottage at night

The moon at its brightest glow

Then with beautiful light the sun arrives

Bursting in millions of colors

But soon the strings of reality pull me down

No longer allowed to fly

My wings are clipped

I am tied down to a plastic tree

The bright colors dimming

There is a cottage on top of a hill

Its walls cracked and deserted

Its paint chipping and cinder block walls cracked

In the middle of a city is where this cottage lies

And I close my book

‘’The Wrong Forever”

Jozi Edgington

I find myself still caring.

Discovering I’m not the one responsible.

The pain is put on me, but not dealt with.

I long for peace.

I long for happiness.

I’m told it only takes time.

What is enough time?

This isn’t fair, and I cannot wait.

They suggest to me all these things,

But I cannot embrace.

This one figure, holding all my wasted time,

Has put enough hurt on me that no passage of time is allowed to let it pass.

You think and you pretend.

You fill your void and distract yourself.

Not a care in the world for anyone or anything else.

Why was that thing most important to you?

Why not me?

Who are you, and what is this version?

You don’t even know the true response.

This is unrecognizable, unbelievable.

So many things left unsaid.

This really does feel like forever,

Just like promised.

The Old Oak Tree

Elijah Eggleston

As I stand there as an old oak tree, I see two children of four and three. They run along toward an old horse farm, Destined to play in an old old barn.

Twenty years later I see them play once again, This time joined in love and laughter saying “amen”. They have two kids running for the corral, And another running over yelling “wait for me, pal!”

Soon the horses turn to cows, And after the cows come the sows.

The first two children now are old, And their children’s children can now behold

The old farm where generations passed, And history changes, forever, at last.

They The People

Elijah Eggleston

I don’t know why they’re all upset. I rather enjoy staying at home.

The virus flying around makes it

So we cannot leave our personal bubble. We have many things to do inside, So much time that needs to fly.

I don’t know why they’re all upset.

Some alone time is dearly needed.

Although we’ll all gain a few pounds, It shouldn’t be that bad for two weeks.

People say that two weeks will become two years I say that will be fine by me any time.

Affinity

Bryn-Marie Eggleston

For there is a tree whose Leaves and branches are one of the people that stand together

A single leaf is a person of her own. The leaf is standing high on a branch that is connected upon the rest.

They work together to keep each other high. Branch by branch they are connected to keep each other all Standing tall.

Cheetah

Jasmine Ehlers

I am a cheetah, one year old

I was told that our leader was old.

He soon will pass, but I have sass. Now I am older, I still have my sass. I came across a hen

Near our cheetah’s den

The hen asked my name and I said “I am speedy, But mostly greedy ... but speedy”

I am fifteen, our new leader is mean

He sacrificed a teen.

That was my friend, it made me sad ... but mostly mad. Now everyone says our leader is bad.

I am eighteen, I am still sad

And only a little bit mad

I ran it off because I am speedy

I am twenty I soon will pass,

The Liberty Bell

Neil Feeney

I Rang...

Freedom Sprang...

Most people love to hear me - ding!

Oh, hear me ring!

1856 - men’s houses were torn And a new idea was born.

When and Why?

Kaylee Fredrick

Why must the tall trees block out the sun? If the old man wishes something, will it be done?

Why must the small frog live in danger? Should we not care for these things?

Why must the leaves turn from red, to green?

If the child has questions, will they be answered?

Why do we have to fear the unseen? For can’t we care for these things?

Why must the flowers bloom, with thorns on their stem?

Will our families go to work, so we can survive?

Can the creatures of the Earth. not live in fear?

Can we not care for these things?

“Solace”

Uotong Haidle

Here I lie, in Silence and solitude, Here I lie, from kinsmen And the world.

Just me in the world, me, Myself, and I, pondering the Universe and all surrounding it. My family beckons me, but I say no, in my solace and Solitude, I am content as a vagabond.

A Sloth Named Gracelynn

Gracelynn Haneline

I am a sloth, my name is Gracelynn

And I live in the grassland.

My mom made me a bowl of lettuce for lunch, I also had some fruit punch.

I am also blind

I hope you don’t mind

My favorite food is pie I am a sloth, ok goodbye!

Hawaii

Gracelynn Haneline

My Mom does not like me going anywhere, But if I were free, I would go everywhere. I would like to go to Hawaii, But she probably will not let me.

I would pack all my clothes, But before I go, I would take a doze Look, it’s me I’m going to Hawaii!

A Choice Made

Erin Harrington

Stumbled through the forest

Blindly

Blindly

Blindly running

Running

Escape?

Escape from reality?

Into a clearing

Clearing

Flowing river

River?

River

Swirling through the rocks In the river bed

River bed

River bed

Trees

Surrounding the area

Circular

Flowing

Enveloping

Jump? No

The beauty

Over taking

Fear Gone

Years go by Family Children

Hiking

Into a clearing

Clearing?

Clearing

Not afraid

Fear Is gone

Lived on to another day

Decades

Decades

Four?

Four score and seven years?

River

Riverbed

Rocks

Flowing

Trees circulate the area

Circular

Flowing

Enveloping

Another yet Feat

Of nature

The ineffable beauty of it all

Morgan Harvey

The ineffable beaury of it all

When the sun embraces the moon with an aubade

There is no sweeter sound than the call of the sun and the moon’s everlasting serenade

It is a sound competing to that of the beauty of a nightingale’s cry

Without boundaries and limits, the bird is free to fly

Across streams and rivers where crawdads dwell

Bubbling over broken branches and skipping stones

With the likeness to forgotten wishes in a well

And over the fallen trees it has flown

The remains of an ancient civilization that once was long ago

Ivy clinging to the decays heartbroken to what once would grow

But there is a beauty in death’s reply

Like the bitterness of when the sky falls in billows of white

Because things will perish but never truly die

And over we fly circumventing the cold’s hostile bite

Through the calm of a storm and the chaos encompassing Verdant sundrenched valleys blooming with awe just under our wing

Passing through darkness some reassurance is found in night

Hearts blinded by fear of the cold darkness

When looking into its eyes could give a soul sight

Because when the day meets the night no greater beauty can one possess

Except as Gaia’s creatures stir so radiant as a daydream

Bringing the magnificence into life it seems

But perhaps nature’s most beautiful creature of them all being humans

With the blood of stars flowing through our veins

The power of our presence bringing mountains onto their knees and into ruins souls made of flames withstanding the pain

Salt water will flow from our eyes as it does in the ocean

Our emotions rocking the world into such a commotion

Our voices do not make pretty melodies like that of a nightingale

But instead raise armies and build empires leading us to prevail

The true power resides within our soul a will to not only survive

But to not let the world deter us because of our yearning to feel alive

Journey of the Wind

Martha Hinneh

I drift from the riveted trees newly made

Juggling the autumn torn leaves

I run across the golden and emerald plains

Swaying the luscious crops

I brush across the everlasting deep as hoards of silver, glints of reflective scales, and shadows of deep blue swim beneath me

I kick up plumes of snow on the frozen terrain as I climb the great Everglades

I stroke the fur of sleek white beasts that move across the white canvas

Unheard and unseen just like me

When the sun goes down I swim among the stars’ reflections as they twinkle from galaxies afar

With the Sun’s morning glow I return back to the valley

Sweeping through the light blue sky I am drawn into a new tree

One that turns me from wind to breath so that I may power life

Life the world’s most greatest, but fleeting beauty

My stay is short as my time there expires

I am once again set to drift back into the riveted trees that made me Until my journey begins again

Fortnite Freedom

Levi Housh

I like skateboarding, I can’t find my recording... I’m about to hop on Fortnite I’m about to take flight!

The Beauty of Being Alone

Greeley Hrupek

She always loved the quiet.

There was nothing that could ever compare to the way the silence made her feel.

The silence was good, comforting, and most of all, it understood.

When no one else seemed to understand her, the silence always did.

It swirled all around her collecting every thought that ran through her mind.

It embraced her, holding her heavy heart as her emotions rolled out in waves.

The silence would always be there to keep her together before she could fall apart. She had no one to judge her

No one to laugh at her

No one to care about what she did

But the silence had always listened. It welcomed her with its arms wide open, Ready to catch her when she failed to stand.

Time

Taylor Jacobson

Day by day

Night by night

Layout in the morning light

Sleep tight

For its a long ride

Time is everlasting

Lurking

Or shining

Always there

Ticking by

Slow slow slow

Fast fast fast

It comes and goes

With time comes change

Evolution

Growth

One second could change the world

Take what we know

It now twirled and whirled away

Into deep dark nothing

Freedom Is...

Cassidy James

Freedom is to choose your job, Freedom is to love each other, Freedom is to pick you door knob, Freedom is to be friends with one another, Freedom is something like Rosa Parks asked, Freedom is your past, Freedom is to have fun, Freedom is to be the one.

Harvest Time

Harper Johnson

‘Tis the season when all the fields are green and farmers are preparing equipment for harvest.

Then before we know it all the pipe and pivots are moved off the fields.

We are hustling around to get the corn picked before rain and snow hold us back. Harvest comes with many long nights and early mornings, lots and lots of patience.

Many things will go wrong and we always have to find the best and fastest way to fix the setback and what everyone awaits during the long days is the big check at the end!

Bridges

Sara Kalamaja

I have wondered before of my own mortality

I wonder, of all the things I will miss, which ones will miss me back

If I can watch over you as an angel, I will still be far from you

A reality that seems peaceful to some

I think I shall meet my creator

Paradise, overflowing perfection, I am told, I will be happy

Beyond understanding

And yet if I left now, would I be happier?

How is it that perfection

Just beyond the thin veil of the beat in my heart, the breath in my lungs

Can be forbidden?

If you are my happiness here, and not there

I am certain I would feel your absence

And I am told I cannot take paradise myself

Some days, I don’t want to go until we could go together

Or not to go at all

Eternal happiness without you is unimaginable

You, my only happiness here

We say it is hell to be separated from those we love

And when they die we say they are happy

Do they not miss our touch, our love?

Do they wish to be with us enough to feel the pain of the distance between us?

What ends, what remains?

Mortal, eternal, the next adventure

We do not choose when to cross these bridges

But to cross at all begs the question,

Will I be able to look behind me for those I have loved

And left behind

In All of us, an Ocean

Sara Kalamaja

An ever shifting song

Below the surface, a gentle melody

Floods of emotion carefully enfolded in our hearts

Strong enough to hurt

Kind enough to heal

Barely explored or understood by others

Known only to itself

An eternal life in shadow

Ours to hold forever

If we can understand the depth

And see ourselves in different waters

Washed away and reunited once again

Spirit

Miriam Shaffer

Nothing stops me,

Nothing gets in my way, Soaring flying higher, Overcoming obstacles to be something greater, Because I am bigger than them.

Twisting, turning, Under bridges, Through places that can only be dreamed. Into a story of my own, Soaring free into the Great Beyond, Because I am me.

But I am not lonely without anyone, Because I am everyone, I am Spirit

Liberty Bell

Kyson Lammers

Liberty’s bell has rung

Work is done

Freedom has come

Labor is gone

Liberty’s bell has rung

No troubles at bay

Sing a song

What a glorious day

Liberty’s bell has rung

Liberty has arrived

On Ellis island she stays America has thrived

Liberty’s bell has rung

Rung from Pennsylvania

The war is over What a wonderous criteria

Eyes

Sa’Mya Lee

There used to be a time where my eyes could see it all

A time where my eyes could see the sun shine

When rain was a sad show before the rainbows appeared

Where the clouds each had a beautiful shape

A time where unicorns were real

And a time when my dreams at night slowly fade ...

Into colors of black and white

And they never seemed to go away

Even when I woke up the black and white spectrum stayed

The sun was now a nuisance

And the rain was comfort

My eyes once filled with life

Once filled with spark

Was now dull

For my rose colored glasses

Were now cracked

Freedom

Murrin Leonard

I wake up, it’s dark inside. I’m really scared and try to hide. I look for my stuffy, I find nothing but something puffy. It starts to move and I want to shriek Something makes me feel like I need to sneak,

The monsters will get me! I think to myself. I think I saw something move on my shelf!

I shuffle around in my bed, I pull the covers over my head.

I’m safe I think, Then I see the night light go blink.

I have my pet by my side. My stuffy was there then I cried.

I’m still here sitting in the dark

I feel my fear start to spark. I hear footsteps in the hall. A light comes on and ends it all.

My mom comes in, I’m free from the dark My happiness starts to spark. I’m ready for school, “Goodbye”, I say. My Mom says “Have a good day”.

My Fox Life

Murrin Leonard

I’m a fox and one year old. But I never do what I’m told. I’m orange-red with a big white tummy I think that birds are really yummy.

Now I’m two, it’s really cool My brother says I’m a silly fool. It’s almost summer Mom says the food will be more “yummer’’

Guess what? I’m three!

Hip-Hip-Hooray, Hooray for me!

It’s fall now and I’m four. Remember in dog years we age by 7 more. Today I found a new toy for the day... Now mice are what I use to play!

It’s been a few years and now I’m seven. Pretty soon I’ll turn eleven ...

I’m ten and my mom is dead, Hunters shot her in the head.

I’m thirteen and the forest was chopped down. Now they’ve replaced it with a city... or was it a town.

I’m seventeen, I live in the town. I live in the streets an almost got seen by the pound.

I’m twenty now and really ill, I always shake, I can’t stay still.

I’m twenty-three, I can’t feel my head And now, I think I’m dead.

Freedom Jessy Linden

Freedom Is Riding my Pony bareback down a dusty dirt road.

Freedom ls a lazy Sunday strolling in a fresh spring pasture.

Freedom Is Playing with my Goats as the afternoon rain shower passes over.

Freedom Is Fishing from an old wooden Bridge as the sun sets in the west.

The Mountain Lion

Paighton Marion

I’m a baby mountain lion Have never got caught cryin’

Because I am brave and I live in a cave.

Ya, Ya, Ya, I am five the big lucky number.

I am like thunder

Ya, Ya, Ya, I am ten, I’m almost a teen It’s so hot, I can see steam.

Now I am twenty-five, Sadly, I died.

The Freedom You Have

Dawson A. Mason

Freedom what a wonderful thing

Freedom can cause one to sing

When one has freedom one can be whatever one wants to be

One with liberty and justice says the creed

To your country and yourself

From the eastern mountains to the western seaside shelf

Your freedom is for yourself

Your freedom comes not without price

Price of life lost in fields of glory

Freedom spoken of, in many stories

Your forefathers died for your freedom

For your beautiful and gracious republic

Peace in Nature

Alizabeth McDermott

In our lives it is so easy to get turned around. But imagine how a bird feels miles from the ground. Life is not easy, but we can always stand in the breeze. It’s the open air, and space we share. There is freedom in nature. In endless skies, and endless clouds. There is freedom in nature.

In the call of a bird, and the whisper of the wind. Look around and see, so easily.

You’ll find peace within nature.

A Simple Connection

Alizabeth McDermott

Life is not simple. We only see our connectedness when we expand our frame of view. Up close there are many differences, from far away there are only a few. The struggle of right and wrong, can be far away in a song.

Forcing us to let go of what we can’t control. There are times when we must all do our best to look ahead. This connection is simple.

The Passing of Time

Kailyn Nakai

For all the dark, there is the light

For every day must have it’s night

And even the brightest flowers

Don’t try to hide their thorns

Every war must have its peace

And every prison it’s release

Behind the clouds still shines the sun

Golden rays come crashing down

For the mountains came from earthquakes

And the greatest lakes born of the floods

And even that which cannot be changed

Still finds a way to shine

The dusk fades to twilight

Then slowly into dawn

The star-speckled sky giving way

To its twin, the daytime

And as time slowly changes the world

It is all we can do to hold to what we know

But why should we resist?

Why should we not relinquish our grip?

For there is a greater plan

For all the bad, there will come good

So as time takes us

Why not surrender?

For time brings change

And is change not life?

Accident

Phoenix Nehls

We are one massive cosmic accident. an unplanned explosion of light and massspilling out into planets and meteorites, expelling and expanding into all known and unknown, dark and luminous, creating itself anew. there is incomprehensible vastness, maddingly large and marvelously new. radio waves in infrared lightever present and ever intangible. it is terrifyingly attractive in its notions yet repulsive in its consequences. we are the creation of miniscule probability, brought to fruition.

We are the archive of all that ever was and ever is, interpreting wavelengths and radiation we were once a part of. Before we know it, the stars will invert and matter will correct itself, a giant erasure to the library of life. but as we are now- as we are now? for a brief moment in time, our atoms know they are atoms, an accident that is rapturous conscious, to miniscule moment of existence. we are statistically unlikely, and yet, we still are.

Passage of Time (Tree)

Darragh Newring

Spring

Most come anew,

But I,

Fallen as frost bit, Fell ever deep into the soil

Brought to the brink of death by that above me, I sprout

A day, a week, a fortnight

Inch after inch.

Taller than the grasshopper,

Taller than the baseball, Winter comes but I am stronger A month, a season, a year

Foot after foot.

Taller than the cat, Taller than the wooden stool, A decade, a century, a millennium

Yard after yard.

Taller than the tallest man, Taller than the old barn, Yet I continue.

The winters no longer bother me, The ants no longer crawl over me, But alas, The only one up so high I am alone for all eternity.

Freedom

CJ Quandt

Soaring like an eagle

The feeling of freedom tastes so sweet and fine

A poacher lines up his shot and shoots

My freedom falls to the ground And is no more

Trapped in an enclosure

While the captor says I’m free

Except this freedom is sour and harsh I get whatever he gives me

But I long for the flight I lack and lost

The earth and the way she loves

Stephanie Schrader

If there was a way to be a part of you I would I already find so much of myself here. It’s hard to imagine being without you, without your peach-pink sky and sage-blue brush, your breath on my neck and my arms and my legs all at once. And who could wish for a better lover?

Who could want more than grass-stained fingers and cloud-filled thoughts, honey-sweet air and endless music?

Everywhere I look you’re there in leaves, in feathers, in the tufts of fur on the sides of tree-trunks

And at night, when your voice comes alive with chirps and howls and rustles with the flutter of music on the wind, We can stare at the stars, the only thing you are not, and somehow it does not make us less than. With everything that’s up there, it makes us more.

Giving Thanks

Miriam Shaffer

So many things to be thankful for; Like the grass and the birds or the trees, But I want to declare, Things that are special to me, I enjoy to see the sunrise, And to hear the birds sing, Through the summer to see, The garden and flowers grow,

In the fall the leaves turn red, And orange and yellow and purple, There are so many more things,

To be thankful for, But the most important thing to me, Is my amazing family

Spirit

Miriam Shaffer

Nothing stops me,

Nothing gets in my way, Soaring flying higher, Overcoming obstacles to be something greater, Because I am bigger than them.

Twisting, turning, Under bridges, Through places that can only be dreamed. Into a story of my own, Soaring free into the Great Beyond, Because I am me.

But I am not lonely without anyone, Because I am everyone, I am Spirit

I’m Free

Emsly Shannon

I get out of the house I see a mouse.

But I don’t care, my clothes are inside-out, But I want out!

Now I’m flying like a flee Because I’m free.

If I were to fly

Allison Trumbull

If I were to fly I’d lift up, up into the air.

A gust of wind, blowing in the fall, sweeping the leaves off the barren earth.

Flying north and south, east, and west: all over the globe.

Flying through England, gusts of wind banging against her Highness’ castle.

Flying through France, blasting through the Eiffel Tower and then all through Europe,

Skimming over the ocean, and softly swiftly, the wind sets me to the ground.

The Breath of the Leaves

Bryna Umphress

Who glazed your leaves with milky finish

Who chiseled your divine ridges, And planted your sturdy roots

Who placed your dew drop tears, And passed green life through your limbs

My maker and crafter, who carries the blade of imperfect perfection

He brushed over me a pearly finish

He placed my seeds beneath the soil

He cultivated my crystalline specs

He is nature: wind, water, and earth His is All

Freedom

Bryna Umphress

When the last trumpet sounds

What will be left standing?

A maple?

A Sycamore?

When the earth begins to crumble

What will stay strong?

The firm roots connected in nature’s soil?

When you cannot find an end to sorrow

What restores your peace?

The land?

The sky?

The rushing water?

In the end who owns this hill?

This spring?

The rushing water?

No one but itself

In the end it is free

And the loss of our restraint is freedom

Freedom Hunter Vesely

My Mom does not let me go. But I get low and I go slow.

If you see me go you will know… You will know and I will know…

Freedom

Clifford Wagner

I want to be free, To roam where I want to be.

I want to live in the mountains, I flee.

I want to be able to hunt for food And live in a good mood

I want to be able to fight danger

Or be a Ranger

I want to hunt moose And kill goose

I want to be free from tax And free from masks

I want to kill bears

Without any cares

I want to be alone

And always be home

In the mountains of lone North America, my home.

Denali

Clifford Wagner

My peak is so high, It gets so high I cannot lie. My friends are doll sheep, They love to leap People barely summit, Because they will plummet. Base camp is cold, Snow is bold.

I dress in layers, Or die to the bears.

Oh, in years past

No one comes to where it’s so vast

Where the bears rule...

And the drool.

They eat fish

And never wish.

When there is a storm, Clouds will form.

Over my high horn, Where no one is born.

Once a year a hiker will climb And look out at the rime

it’s wonderful to see them climb

What wonderful stuff to find.

Freedom

Leira Womochil

Poems make me feel free, Just you wait and see, The scritch, scratch of a pencil, And I don’t have to use a stencil, It is soooooo fun, I will never be done! You can’t lock it in a chest Freedom is the best!

The Mountain

Leira Womochil

I am a mountain, There is no fountain, I have been here from the beginning of time, So, throw me a dime, It can get cold, Or so I’m told, It can be hot, And never stop, Come and camp

Maybe bring a lamp,

About The Nebraska Writers Collective

The Nebraska Writers Collective fosters self-empowerment and community-building through creative writing and performance poetry. Nebraska Writers Collective provides interactive workshop-based programming throughout the Midwest and provides paying work for more than 50 local writers and poets each year, helping to sustain and retain them right here in Nebraska. Founded in 2008, Nebraska Writers Collective is an Omaha-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization that unleashes the power of writing at schools, businesses, detention facilities and other organizations throughout the Midwest, supporting writers at all stages of their journey.

For this project, Nebraska Writers Collective helped identify themes, created prompts, and NWC teaching artists designed and facilitated poetry workshops for over 350 middle and high school students across Nebraska.

Visit newriters.org for more information.

About Opera Omaha

Opera Omaha is a growth-minded, high energy, and innovative company with a demanding mission: producing opera performances in multiple formats and styles and co-creating artist-led programs for a variety of community service organizations.

Since 1958, Opera Omaha has led its rich artistic community by producing a season of original mainstage productions, presented at the historic Orpheum Theater, and smaller productions and musical events throughout the community. Opera Omaha is internationally known for its productions of eight world premieres and four American premieres of classical masterpieces and is highly regarded regionally for extensive community engagement and education programs. In 2018, Opera Omaha launched its ONE Festival, an innovative new spring festival, and a groundbreaking civic action initiative, the Holland Community Opera Fellowship — work that is key to Opera Omaha’s ongoing transformation from a performing arts organization to a cultural resource for the community.

Visit operaomaha.org for more information.

2021-2022 “Exploring Natural Beauty”

Themes for Poetry Submissions

Passage of Time

Freedom

Reclamation

Solace

Connectedness

Suggested Writing Prompts

Passage of Time

How time changes us all.

A blade of grass has a life span around 40 days while a Sequoia tree can live more than 3,000 years. Write a poem in which you live the life cycle of some element of nature, maybe you are a frog or a tree or a piece of fruit or a mountain. Describe all the things you see, how the seasons effect your view, how things shift and shape over time.

For inspiration, consider this poem by John Mark Green: “Rebellious leaves going out in a blaze of glory, setting trees aflame in riotous color. Reluctant surrender to rumors of coming winter.”

Freedom

The beauty of openness in nature.

Read the poem “Flying Inside Your Own Body” by Margaret Atwood. Imagine you could fly, how would you do it? Where would you go? What would you see? Now write a poem in which you are a gust of wind. Show us what things you decide to move (leaves in a tree, a flag, a child’s kite) and tell us the places you would roam if you were bound by nothing.

Reclamation

The things we do, and build, will last for a time but nature will last forever.

In several abandoned places, nature has taken back over. Buildings have been covered in greenery and animals have made homes out of places people have left. Write a poem about human vs nature interactions, about the process of disturbing nature to build things only to leave them when they no longer serve a purpose, think about this process and examine the way that “nature always wins”.

For more inspiration check out: “Nature Will Reclaim” by Trina Johnson.

Alternately, peruse the poem, “this beginning may have always meant this end” by Camille T. Dungy. Think about the destructive aspects of nature and how these acts are, in essence, nature cleansing itself. Consider the rebirth that happens after a forest fire or the mountains that have been built by earthquakes over the millennia. Write a poem in which you are a phoenix rising from the ashes of destruction done by a natural phenomenon and how there is a form of beauty there.

Solace

Finding a sense of peace that only the outdoors can provide.

May Sarton wrote: “Loneliness is the poverty of self, Solitude is the richness of self”

Being alone doesn’t always mean being lonely. Write a poem in which your companions aren’t people but the things you find when you are alone outside. What do you talk about with them? How do they comfort you? What do you learn from being in their presence? How are you better/worse for spending time with these things you find in nature?

Connectedness

Realizing that we are part of a larger ecosystem than ourselves.

Joy Harjo brilliantly explains how we all come from the same earth in the poem “Remember.”

Write a poem in which you are a leaf on a tree. Tell us who are the other leaves, who are the branches that hold you up and how do they do so? What is the trunk that forms the backbone of your existence? Explore how your tree is part of a larger orchard or forest and how each tree depends on one another.

Alternatively, take a look at “Celebrating Differences” by Uma Nair.

Write a poem that explores the differences that make nature great, there are hundreds of thousands of different kinds of flowers with no one being better or worse just all evolving differently based on time and place. Look at how plants all depend on the same things, but they all see the world from different angles. Have fun with the diversity that makes nature great.

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